Seven Days and Seven Nights
by anni
Summary: Nathan has one week to convince Haley that they can be something real.
1. Chapter One, Part One

**Title:** Seven Days and Seven Nights  
**Author:** Annie  
**Email:** asleeperemail.arizona.edu  
**Rating:** PG-13 because that Haley and Nathan, boy do they have potty mouths.  
**Summary:** Nathan has one week to convince Haley that they can be something real.  
**Note** This takes place early in the season, say around ENIAS. Peyton and Nathan have broken up, but no one else has hooked up at all. They're just a bunch of sad and lonely, horny teenagers.  
**Another Note:** I don't generally like splitting up chapters, but this first one got obscenely long, so it will be posted in two parts. I do want to give a warning right here at the beginning that I am the slowest writer ever. I'm going to try to keep up with at least one update a week, but we'll have to see how that goes.  
**Another, Another Note:** Big gigantic thanks go out to the lovely and talented Janet for her mad betaing skills. She's teh awesome. And also to Bekah who lets me bother her will all of my paranoid and annoying rambling. She's the awesome as well.  
**Last Note, I promise**: I absolutely lurve it when people tell me I'm pretty, so drop me a line and tell me what you thought of the story, and I will think you're pretty for the rest of my days.

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**Chapter One, Part One:  
**  
"Hey."  
  
Haley glanced up from her geometry homework to the door of the otherwise empty tutoring center and smiled widely as Nathan entered. "Hi! I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to show up this morning. I know how hard it can be for a slacker such as yourself to roll out of bed in time for a seven-thirty tutoring session."  
  
Nathan smirked, pulled out a chair, and dropped down beside her, his backpack thumping when it hit the table. "What, and miss seeing your beautiful face first thing? You do know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?"  
  
Haley laughed, averting her eyes as a blush crawled across her cheeks and spread up and around until the tips of her ears were colored a soft red. "I can't believe you ever get dates with lines like that."  
  
His gaze danced along the flushed lines of her face, and that smirk widened into a grin. That was what she did to him, what she did for his mornings. She made him smile, setting his day off on the right foot. He hadn't even known there was a foot that didn't suck before he'd started spending so much time with her. "Well, you do have to give some of the credit to the pretty face. That really helps a lot."  
  
He watched her roll her eyes, but she still refused to glance up at him, instead twirling her pen nervously between her fingers and keeping her focus on the math homework in front of her.  
  
There was a tension between them now, and it was a new sort of feeling, or maybe not new so much, as newly noticed. It seemed to float back and forth between them each session, growing until it reached almost palpable levels.  
  
It had started with a few soft moments. Haley was there for him, with the break-up with Peyton and with his dad. Things between them hadn't started with the most clear of intentions or the most unbiased of opinions, but there was a connection established almost at their first early morning meeting. Agendas were pushed to the side at the sound of quiet, feminine laughter and a broad, open smile that crinkled the corners of wide brown eyes. All of the preconceived judgments faded at the realizations that people exist outside of their position in the hierarchy of a high school.  
  
And the most unexpected of friendships was formed.  
  
Those feelings of friendship, however, started to evolve at the first notice of just how long and graceful her neck appeared when she lifted her hair up into a ponytail and his growing irrational obsession with the tiny mole at the corner of her left jaw just underneath her ear. He'd wanted to lick it.  
  
Then, there had been that one morning where the temperature in the tutoring center was set a little lower than normal, and she'd arched back to slip her arms into her jean jacket. The sudden movement drew his stare, and it was then that Nathan, considering himself a bit of an expert in the field, determined that this girl had one hell of a fine rack.  
  
That discovery was soon followed by the picture of her bending over to pull a practice exam out of one of the lower filing cabinets. The hem of her t- shirt rode up to give the most tantalizing view of a strip of soft tan skin. His eyes had traced the two lines formed from the curve of her hips as they rolled back and down to meet in a v somewhere below the waistband of her jeans. His fingertips itched to trace that line, and he knew, just knew, that the two round cheeks of her ass would fit perfectly in the palms of his hands.  
  
It was official. Haley James was #%$ hot.  
  
That hadn't really been an unwelcome insight. It certainly made getting up at the butt crack of dawn a little more bearable, though his propensity to get caught up in staring at her full, pink lips and wondering what they tasted like, he thought she was maybe just a simple cherry flavored lip gloss kind of girl, did tend to make paying a reasonable amount of attention a bit of a challenge.  
  
It had all been harmless at first, just a simple perk of getting a dig into his ass half-brother and raising his grades. It wasn't a big deal.  
  
That was, of course, until the first night he'd dreamt this gay dream about the two of them on a picnic on a sunny day in a field of flowers. They'd held hands and gone berry picking, of all things. That weirdness was followed by that first shower when she had replaced both Peyton and the entire Slutty Sororities website in his head as he'd given himself a morning hand. It was then that he'd come to the conclusion that he was in big trouble.  
  
Just over a month ago, Nathan had set out to make this girl fall for him, just another trick to teach Lucas his place, but now, it was him that couldn't get her out of his mind.  
  
And it wasn't just that perfect set of tits or the plump curves of her backside that had him so strung out. No, it was all of her: her laughter, her smile, her intelligence, that sharp wit that kept him on his toes, the caring heart that had him opening up like he never had before, and the stupid way his stomach flip-flopped when she walked in the room... for crap's sake, he was this close to getting down on one knee and spouting off a bunch of pansy assed poetry for her.  
  
It was freaking ridiculous. He was Nathan Scott, star athlete, big man on campus, and Haley James of all people had brought him to his knees in the throws of the most pathetic schoolboy crush he had ever had.  
  
And he didn't know what to do about it.  
  
He knew that he was not alone in these shifting feelings between them. He had more than once caught her staring through her lashes as she pretended to be reading a book, waiting for him to finish whatever assignment he was working on. There was the innocent way that she would blush at his more flirty advances, as opposed to how she'd merely brushed him off at the beginning and the proud way she would beam at him every time he got something right, a reaction that always seemed a tad more personal than a tutor would normally give.  
  
More recently, he noticed that she'd begun applying a light brush of makeup each morning. At first, the artificial coloring had stood out, too much blush and an unsteady hand at eyeliner. Instead of laughing at her clumsy attempts, however, he'd wanted to smile, sweep a hand across her cheek, and kiss her, let her know how beautiful she was.  
  
He hadn't done that though, and she'd started getting better, probably an effect of the blossoming friendship he'd noted between her and Peyton.  
  
And that was where the problems entered.  
  
Peyton. Lucas. His friends, her friends, his father, the rest of the school. Everyone would have an opinion, a say. The things between them were more complicated than what was just between them. And that held him back, and he knew it held her back as well.  
  
A part of him wanted to say screw them, and just go ahead and make his move. People could deal with it however they wanted as long as his fingers got to brush across that silky skin she had covered up so well and his tongue finally got to taste that smile that lit up his mornings.  
  
He wanted her as his girlfriend. He wanted to be able to kiss her whenever he felt like and run his hands up under her shirt to touch all that she kept hidden. And he wanted the right to talk to her whenever he needed to, wanted to, whether it was just in passing in the hallways or before class or late night phone calls that faded on into the early morning. The desire to just hear her voice was getter stronger and more regular with each passing day.  
  
He just wanted Haley.  
  
But another part of him, the more shallow and insecure part, was afraid of the rejection, hers and theirs. As the jockstar he was, there were expectations he had to live up to, a reputation he had to keep, and she was far from a cheerleader.  
  
That part was wavering, however, and sometimes, he wasn't sure how much longer he could go without just giving into the urge to nibble on that beauty mark at the corner of her jaw. More frequently, it was all he could do to not reach out and run his fingers through her mane of auburn hair. Just yesterday, when leaning in to watch her tiny fingers work out the math on one of the problems he'd missed, he'd actually had to stop himself from pushing further into her space to bury his nose in the crook of her neck and breath in that scent that he still hadn't been able to place, that scent that was just her.  
  
Crap. He had it bad.  
  
"Nathan?"  
  
"Hmm?" Her voice snapped him from his thoughts, and he realized that she wasn't the one caught staring that time.  
  
Haley gave him a funny look. but continued on. "Were you able to get most of those math problems done last night?"  
  
"Oh, right." She watched as Nathan reached toward his bag and pulled out his math notebook. "There were a couple I had questions on."  
  
Haley tried to keep focused in on what he was saying. She knew that any moment she was going to have to start answering those questions he had, and to do that, she would need to know what they were, but she kind of had this problem where every time she let herself look at his hands, her insides would turn to goo.  
  
Nathan had really nice hands.  
  
His fingers were long and not too skinny, not too thick. As crazy as it sounded, there was something graceful about his hands, a masculine kind of graceful. She could tell that they were strong from the firm way he held his pencil, and she knew the skin was slightly calloused from the time that he'd brushed against her arm as he pointed out a specific problem on the worksheet she was checking. His nails were trimmed and always clean, and there was a tiny mole on his left hand, just in between the knuckle of his pointer and middle fingers.  
  
After the first time he'd gotten a B on a history pop quiz, he had wrapped her into a hug, and she'd felt those big hands as they flattened against her back and pulled her closer to him. She'd felt so tiny and feminine with his arms draped around her and his long fingers splayed out so far that they covered almost the entire width of her back. It was one hug, and it still gave her shivers just thinking about it.  
  
That was the thing about being around Nathan. He made her feel different that anyone else, a good kind of different. It was almost like he made her more aware of herself, physically speaking. She had always been one of the guys. He made her feel like a woman... or a girl, at least.  
  
Ugh, that sounded so cheesy, but it was true.  
  
It was like, last week, she'd worn a nice button up and down blouse to school rather than her normal t-shirt because she was going to give a presentation in French class and wanted to look a little nicer. They were in the middle of structuring out an essay he had for English when she caught him leaning over slightly and looking down at her. She'd figured that she must have spilt a little syrup from her pancakes that morning and that was what drew him away from the weird fixation he seemed to have with her ear, but after a quick check of herself, she realized that that was not the case.  
  
He was checking her out. Nathan Scott was trying to catch a peak of her boobs.  
  
That little realization was almost too surreal for her because other than the creepy old man that stood as a greeter in the local Wal-Mart, she didn't think she'd ever had a guy check her out. And she tried rationalizing it out that sixteen year old boys were horny and would ogle anything with breasts... but she couldn't stop the giddy feeling that twisted in her belly at the chance that maybe he found her sort of attractive.  
  
And she would never admit to it out loud, but that chance may have prompted her to buy a blouse that weekend at Banana Republic that was slightly out of her price range and a tiny bit lower cut than her normal style.  
  
She hadn't gotten up the nerve to wear it yet, though.  
  
Not that she would dress up specifically for him, of course. They were just friends. And that was it.  
  
It was a surprising friendship that had developed between them. She'd gone into this whole set up with the idea that she was just going to have to suck it up and deal with this cocky #%$'s crap for the sake of making things even a tad easier on her best friend. He was the typical jock, and she was ready to steel herself against whatever charm, and she used the term loosely, he would throw at her.  
  
The real shock had come when Nathan dropped his so-called charm, and she found him to be one of the most charming people she'd ever met.  
  
Once he finally grasped the fact that she would not do his work for him and he set out to actually learn and pay attention to the assignments in front of him, she'd seen a sort of will and determination to succeed that rivaled only Lucas's. It wasn't that he cared about his homework, per say. It was more like he couldn't stand to not do well at something he actually put effort into. It was kind of backwards, but on more than one occasion, Haley found herself admiring him for that fortitude.  
  
When her defenses continued to thaw, and his short attention span led them off of tutoring and onto more personal topics, she discovered that not only was he an interesting conversationalist, but he also had a sort of dry and kind of dark sense of humor. He made her laugh.  
  
As their more personal type bunny trails became more common, Haley learned that not everything in Nathanland was as peachy as people would think. Sometimes, when he trailed in a little later than he normally did, and his shoulders sagged tiredly beneath the pressure of his home life and the expectations that everyone and his father seemed to heap on him, she just wanted to wrap him up in hug, tell him it would be alright, and make everything better for him.  
  
And if she was able to catch a stronger whiff of that fancy cologne that delightfully tickled her nose and probably cost more than what she made in one entire shift at Karen's, than so be it.  
  
No. She was not interested in him as anything more than a friend... just a casual friend... a casual friend with the most amazing set of clear blue eyes ever.  
  
There was a connection between them; there was no denying that. And when she looked into those clear blue eyes, she wasn't just Haley James, frumpy tutor and all around good girl. It was almost like, when she looked deep into that ocean color, he could see into her soul.  
  
Holy crap.  
  
She wished someone would just shoot her in the head already.  
  
Haley was not, and never would be, one of those girls, those ones that fell madly in love with a guy one week only to find their soulmate in another boy the next. She loved a good romantic comedy as much as the next girl, and she had that obligatory stack of embarrassing romance novels hidden in the back of her closet, but she wasn't a swooner or a flirter or the type of woman to get swept off her feet.  
  
Especially not for a guy, who while she may be kind of friends with, was not above using someone for a quick lay.  
  
It didn't matter if he could see into her soul or whatever other crap, she would not be one of those hussies that threw themselves at him just because he had a letterman jacket and an ass that looked like it had been sculpted from granite.  
  
And while yes, she may have started wearing make up and using a curling iron on her hair and cutting back on the amount of times she wore a sports bra, that had nothing to do with him. Just because a girl spent a little extra time on her appearance did not mean it was all for some stupid guy. She could make herself beautiful for nothing more than herself.  
  
...  
  
Oh, who was she trying to kid?  
  
Just last week, she caught herself zoning out during a history lecture and upon looking down at her notes, she found N H scribbled inside a slightly lopsided heart. Her eyes had widened, and being as that was the one class they shared, she turned around to look at him to see if he caught her embarrassment, only to find him staring at her ear again.  
  
Holy cheese and rice. She had it bad.  
  
As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, Haley couldn't deny the fact that she was thinking about him all of the time, doing the sorts of things that she hated other girls doing like puffing her chest out, fluffing her hair, and giggling at even his lame jokes.  
  
And while it seemed to kind of be working on him, it wasn't a good thing.  
  
Just yesterday, as he was leaning over to watch her work out a problem, she'd thought for a moment that he was going to kiss her neck. It had flustered her so much that she'd ended up getting the math wrong twice and having to redo the problem. Then, as she lay awake, restless half the night, she wished that he had kissed her. She wondered what those beautifully curved and perfectly soft, or she imagined perfectly soft, lips would feel like on her skin.  
  
There was nothing good that could come from this pathetic schoolgirl crush she'd developed. Absolutely nothing. Even if it turned out that he did like her as something more than the nerdy girl he was using to crank up his grades and get back at Lucas, there were too many other things to consider.  
  
Peyton, his ex-girlfriend, who he'd treated like complete crap by the way, was quickly becoming one of her best girlfriends. Lucas would very likely blow a gasket. He hated the idea of her spending even one hour of the day with his little brother. She was sure he wouldn't be too keen on the idea of them kissing and holding hands. Then, there were his friends, and she pretty much did all she could to avoid them, so she didn't see his side being a whole lot better.  
  
As much as the fantasy of having Nathan as her boyfriend, being his girlfriend, made her warm all over, Haley needed to realize that it wasn't going to happen and in the end, she could only get hurt.  
  
"So, basically, I think Mr. Peters has some serious sadistic qualities that need to be dealt with, getting back in touch with his childhood and all that, because I don't know how much longer I can take all this homework crap."  
  
Haley focused back in on Nathan, realizing that he had been talking to her for the past few minutes and was now looking at her expectantly. "Right. Um, well..." She cleared her throat and concentrated on the notebook he pushed at her. "Maybe you should put it in a suggestion box for him."  
  
Nathan chuckled, taking in the quiet flush that colored Haley's cheeks as she scanned over his homework. "That's a good idea. I'll definitely have to try that."  
  
He could tell from the nervous way she was tapping her pen and the slight pout that curved her lips that she had not been listening to his bitching about the previous night's assignments and now wasn't quite sure where to start. She'd zoned out on him. She'd zoned out about him.  
  
And he found that delightful.  
  
"So." He leaned close to drape an arm across the back of her chair, all for the purpose of getting a better view of the notebook, of course, but couldn't stop a small smirk at the way she stiffened at his new position. "I guess we can just start with the third one, right?"  
  
Haley nodded slowly and tried to catch her bearings at their new more intimate seating arrangement. Nathan's crowding into her space was becoming something he did more and more often, and the butterflies in her stomach loved that. She could breathe in his cologne and his aftershave and she could feel his body heat through her layers of clothing until all of those stupid little butterflies were jacked up on pure raging teenage hormones.  
  
The tutor part of her, however, couldn't help but find his closer proximity a bit of hassle because it was hard to get anything right when the object of her late night pirate type fantasies was practically sitting on her lap.  
  
"Right." She mentally shook herself and crossed her fingers that a good dosage of geometry would be all that she needed to cool down that tempting desire to ask him what he thought of said pirate type fantasies. "Let's get started."  
  
Nathan tried to pay attention to the words that were coming out her mouth, he really did. Her tutoring had helped him in pretty much every other subject, but geometry was still kicking his ass a good portion of the time, and with midterms on the horizon, he needed to learn this stuff.  
  
More and more, though, he was finding it really hard to stay focused when they got into working. All of the uneasiness and tension would just drain out of her when she got going on a topic that she was truly comfortable with. Kind of weird to think, but there was a passion in the way that she taught him about all those circles and squares and other stuff.  
  
And if she was that enthusiastic about math, he couldn't help but wonder about the passion she would have in the backseat of his dad's Expedition.  
  
She pulled out a scratch piece of paper, and Nathan nodded in all of what he thought were the appropriate moments as she worked step by step through problem three, showing him the parts the he had done well on and the few stages he missed.  
  
She shifted in her seat, turning a bit toward him so that he would have a better angle with which to watch her work, and he could now feel her warm thigh pressed against his through two layers of denim. The shift also allowed his hand, still resting across the edge of her chair, to brush against her shirt at that sensitive area of her back just underneath her arm.  
  
Because the distraction of merely being near her wasn't enough, he now got to touch her as well... not that he would really complain all that loudly about being able to cop a guilt free feel to assure him no chance of being able to sleep that night or to pass a probable pop quiz when math class rolled around later that day.  
  
He let his fingers graze as inconspicuously as he could manage across the soft cotton of her t-shirt, feeling the warmth of her skin beneath it and the lines of her bra. He didn't want to spook her, but he also didn't think that he had the will power to stop touching her just then. It was like each time he got a new taste, he couldn't help but press for more.  
  
There really was just something about her. He tried to tell himself, at the beginning, when these feelings first began to surface, that she was a phase, something new, but nothing more. And once he finally got his fill of her, she would be as easy to drop as all the rest.  
  
Nathan may have been slow on occasion, but it hadn't taken all that long for even him to figure out that that wasn't the case when it came to Haley James. And when he got the chance to stare at her openly, like he did just then, it was so easy to see why.  
  
There was such life in the way that she moved, the way that she spoke. Her eyes were always bright, warm, accepting, and her smile, with those perfect white teeth, was always wide and friendly. She was open and innocent in a way, having been raised the way he had, that he couldn't identify with. She was new and uncharted, but not in the just looking for a hot piece of ass sort of way. Haley was so much more than that.  
  
She was breathtaking.  
  
And as he stared at those full perfect lips as they stretched into a smile over some lame math joke she'd just made, he couldn't even blame himself for turning into such pansy over her.  
  
Haley tried to keep her fingers steady as she willed herself to stay completely tuned into the problem she was working. He was staring again... and if she had learned anything from those romance novels she denied reading, it was a lusty kind of stare he had going on.  
  
She knew how to handle his lack of understanding when it came to the quadratic equation, but when he busted out that smoldering look, she could only draw a blank.  
  
And that was why it was so important to stay focused on math. She was math, or at least, that's what she told him once. And math didn't care about his bluster, his B.S., or his massive biceps.  
  
Right.  
  
His fingers were tracing the outline of her bra through her shirt, and it was all she could do not to shiver at his contact. She knew that she should move, shift away from his touch. She tried repeating in her head that mantra that nothing could happen and she would only get hurt, but she couldn't hear that voice of common sense over the squealing her voice of 'OhmyGod,NathanScottistouchingmybra' was making.  
  
And there was nothing wrong with a little harmless touching, right? It was just a little harmless touching...  
  
Said the voice of single teenage mothers everywhere.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Haley tapped her pencil on the scrap piece of paper, chortling a little at some lame math joke she choked out as she finished the problem. She needed to draw Nathan's attention back onto the more common ground of homework because if he didn't quit it with the sexy eyebrows, she was going to hop on his lap any second.  
  
And that would be embarrassing no matter what kind of spin she put on it.  
  
An awkward moment passed, and Haley began to fidget when he still wouldn't snap out of his daze. "Nathan, are you still with me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Nathan snapped back to attention when he heard her call his name. Jeez, she was probably starting to think he was like ADD with all the times she caught him gawking at her, completely lost in some daydream.  
  
He watched as she pushed a stray lock of hair back behind her ear and was rewarded with a perfectly unobstructed view of that beauty mark. "Have I completely lost you? Equilateral triangles not stimulating enough to hold your interest?"  
  
His eyes slid along the curve of her jaw, from just below her ear all the way along until he reached her chin. She nibbled uneasily at her bottom lip and he was suddenly irrationally jealous of her for that fact that she got to taste her own lips and he didn't. He very much wanted to taste those lips.  
  
"Oh, I'm stimulated alright."  
  
His voice sounded husky in his ears, and he wanted to cringe at the total cheese of what had just popped out of his mouth. That sounded almost like something Tim would say.  
  
But, as Haley's eyes widened at his words and her chest expanded with a sharp intake of breath, Nathan was struck by one of those moments, those moments that didn't come along very often and once they're gone, they're gone forever. There was opportunity in front of him; his destiny was in his own hands and all that other crap.  
  
And he wasn't going to let it pass him by.  
  
He was stimulated alright. Haley sat frozen in front of him, but her mind raced at his words. What the hell did he mean? And why did something so lame make her heart beat so fast?  
  
His eyes were concentrated on her lips, like practically glued to them, and Haley was suddenly struck by the memory of a sleepover her sister once had, back when she was just in junior high, and how Emily had forced her to be a life sized Barbie doll for her and her friends. She'd cried the whole night, but they'd paid no attention to her wailing as they pulled at her hair with curling irons and slathered her face in enough make-up that she was sure, years later, that her pores were still clogged.  
  
Her sister was honestly one of the last things she wanted in her head as she was sitting so close, having what she was sure would qualify as a 'moment' with the boy of her dreams, but there was something about that sleepover that spun in her mind.  
  
Emily was reading from a copy of Sixteen magazine as her friends put Haley through all of that torture of a makeover. It was some dumb article about how to make a boy interested in you and how to know if it was working. She'd hardly heard any of it over her begging for her mother to come rescue her, but there was this one line that stuck, one line that she remembered.  
  
If a boy is staring at your lips, he wants to kiss you.  
  
Nathan was staring at her lips.  
  
Nathan wanted to kiss her.  
  
The little girl in her, the one that had never been kissed and would much rather be hanging out with Lucas and the guys rather than go shopping and doing other girlie things, wanted to slap her hand over her mouth and insist that all boys had cooties. She wasn't ready to be kissed, especially not by someone who could probably write a handbook on the art.  
  
The young woman in her, though, the one that wondered what it felt like, had practiced on her hand and imagined it was him, she wanted to let her eyes flutter shut, all romantic like they did in the movies, and pucker out her lips and wait for the earth to spin off its axis like it was supposed to when you kissed someone you really liked.  
  
The two sides pulled at her, each debating their case until she couldn't distinguish one voice from the other. So, she sat, unmoving, blinking at him like a moron as he leaned forward.  
  
And then his lips were touching hers. 


	2. Chapter One, Part Two

I should have done this on the first part, but I was all wrapped up in the glee of having actually finished something... doesn't happen very often, but the original background idea of this story was posted by Janet (wildcherry45) awhile ago, and since she didn't end up writing it, she was kind enough to let me do so. That's because she's cool, cool, cool.

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**Chapter One, Part Two**  
  
Haley could feel his breath, hot, against her cheek as his mouth rested on hers. Her eyes remained open and she stared at him, his face a little blurry because he was so close, waiting for something else, she wasn't sure what, to happen.  
  
This was a little awkward.  
  
There was one thing for sure though, she'd been right when she imagined his lips so perfectly soft.  
  
It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. She was there, looking all hot in front of him, nibbling on her lip in what almost any guy would consider to be that innocent, come hither sort of way. There hadn't been anything else in his mind to do besides kiss her, finally kiss her, like he'd wanted to do for weeks.  
  
Now, Nathan was wondering if wasn't a mistake.  
  
She was stiff and unresponsive beneath his mouth, and for a moment, he wondered if she'd stopped breathing. This was a little awkward.  
  
So, shifting against her one last time to take her bottom lip between his and tug lightly, trying to catch just a little bit more of her taste so that he'd have at least some sort of comfort from this horribly embarrassing incident, he pulled away.  
  
But then, there it was, hope in all of its shining glory, just as he separated from her.  
  
She moaned.  
  
Haley's eyes grew even wider at the guttural sound that pulled from the back of her throat just as he pulled away.  
  
God, he must have thought she was the biggest freak. First, he kisses her and she just sits there like she's bored, and then he pulls away, and she starts making weird mating calls.  
  
She was so embarrassed, and as one, because of that wonderful klutzy gene, that found herself in embarrassing situations more often than most, she knew there was only one way to handle this sort of situation.  
  
Deny, deny, deny.  
  
Nathan watched, confused, as Haley nodded, obviously finishing off some sort of conversation in her head, and turned back to the forgotten math homework in front of them.  
  
Now, he didn't really consider himself a conceited sort of guy. He knew the things that he was good at, and he stuck to his strengths. Kissing was one of his strengths. He was experienced, he was hot, and practiced good dental hygiene. So, it was a bit of a hit to his ego to have a girl blow off his kiss so completely. Especially when it was this girl, this one he liked so much, and if he'd read the signs correctly, which he thought he had, liked him in the same way.  
  
"Haley?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Oh, I thought we should get started on the next problem."  
  
Nathan nodded, taking in the jittery way she tucked her hair behind her ear again. She had shifted away from him so completely that her leg no longer touched his and she was leaning so far forward that she was completely out of reach of his hand that still rested across the back of her chair. Her body was closed off from his so that even if he'd wanted to focus on the math problem she was working, which he didn't, he'd have to crane up over her shoulder to do so.  
  
"Haley?"  
  
She didn't answer this time, so he slid his hand up the length of her back to catch her attention, but withdrew it quickly as she nearly fell out of her chair to get away from his touch.  
  
"Haley!"  
  
Haley caught herself as fast as she could, settling back into her chair. Jeez, she was making such an ass out of herself. There was no way he would be kissing her again anytime soon.  
  
And that sudden thought almost made her want to cry.  
  
"I'm fine," she assured him, trying to keep her face straight as she tapped her pencil back toward the neglected notebook. "Math! We should... um, math. Homework."  
  
There was absolutely nothing she wanted more in the world than to be able to run out of the room and away from him. She knew, in the logical part of her head, that they were wrong and that they couldn't work. As much as she wanted him, liked him, it wasn't right. They weren't right.  
  
But she couldn't help but feel like she'd just missed out on the chance of a lifetime by not kissing him back.  
  
Nathan kept silent for a moment, letting it all sink in before he did something rash again.  
  
He'd kissed her. She'd freaked out. She hadn't stopped freaking out.  
  
He learned rather quickly, actually probably in their very first tutoring session, that Haley wasn't like the other girls that he knew. That was one of the reasons that he liked her so much, was so drawn to her. But it was also one of the reasons that he didn't always know how to handle her and he didn't always read her correctly.  
  
There was a lot at stake for him in that moment. So, he needed to manage this right.  
  
"Haley?"  
  
She didn't look up. "It looks like your problem with number seven was the same as with number three. Do you think you'd be able to fix it on your own now?"  
  
"I just kissed you, Haley."  
  
He kind of cringed at the bluntness of the statement, but he needed to know where she stood. And her silence was making him nervous in the most unfamiliar of ways.  
  
"I know... but I'm avoiding it," she said finally, still refusing to look up. She just continued on as though nothing had changed. "So, I can just run through number seven for you again. It isn't tha-"  
  
"You're avoiding it?" This girl just had a special knack for confusing him... and kicking his ego in the balls. No girl avoided the topic of kissing him. "Why?"  
  
She finally glanced up, and he could see how reluctant even that was. "Because it shouldn't have happened."  
  
Reality came rushing back at her words. All of those reasons, Lucas and his friends and his dad and the positions they held, it all came pouring down on him, reminding him why he hadn't made a move earlier.  
  
Nathan hated that reality.  
  
He looked at her. She was chewing on that full bottom lip again, and she still had that beauty mark on the corner of her jaw. Her cheeks were flushed and her wide brown eyes were sad.  
  
There was a different reality in this tutoring center where they spent so much time together. A reality where she liked him and he liked her and they both knew it and nothing else mattered.  
  
Nathan liked that reality a lot better.  
  
And so he kissed her again.  
  
The hand that had been draped across the back of her chair moved to wrap around her shoulder and pull her toward him, while the other reached up to slide along her jaw, cup her cheek, and guide her mouth toward his. It took her a moment longer, but he finally felt a soft sigh push out of her lips to sweep across his face as she relaxed into his embrace.  
  
She was kissing him back. Nathan Scott, star basketball player and all around hottie, was kissing Haley James, tutor girl and all around goody two shoes, and she was kissing him back.  
  
Haley felt herself melt against him. She wasn't sure what the difference was this time, this kiss, whether it was that she had been ready for him or that she knew for sure that she wanted it, but she was able to loosen up and let him lead.  
  
There was a bit of that earlier awkwardness as she still really had no idea what she was doing, but his lips, those perfectly soft lips, slightly moist, moved against hers, teaching her and tasting her and making any thought process at all completely impossible.  
  
His mouth opened, sucking lightly at her top lip before his head canted and he nipped at the bottom one. The hand that cupped her jaw tightened to tilt her head a bit to the side so that he could deepen their contact, and the new angle allowed him to form a gentle seal over her mouth.  
  
Haley tried to follow his example, to move her lips against his and to give him the same pleasure and enjoyment that he was giving her. She knew that she was hardly the first girl he had kissed, but she wanted to be special for him, she wanted to be good and for him to want to kiss her and not stop kissing her just like she never wanted this to end.  
  
So, she pushed back, a bit timid at first, but then more sure, and as her teeth scraped over that soft skin just on the inside of his lip, she was rewarded with a quiet moan that vibrated in the back of his throat and pushed out to brush across her cheek.  
  
His hand slipped off of her jaw and trailed down her neck to stop, long fingers curving over her collarbone, thumb resting on her pulse point, and palm positioned out over her heart. She was sure that he could feel her blood pressure rise beneath his fingertips as she let herself get lost, just for a moment, in his mouth. He felt so much better here, where she could actually touch him, than he did in even her naughtiest of late night fantasies.  
  
Nathan could feel her heart race beneath his touch and under his kiss, as his hand settled over her chest and the heel of his palm pressed slightly into the soft rise of her breast. His other hand pressed into her back, pushing her further into him. He'd been addicted before even the first taste, and now that he had her in his arms and on his lips, he knew that he really would be willing to get down on one knee and spout off all of that fag poetry if it meant that he could keep on kissing her.  
  
He could feel her inexperience in the way that she mostly just followed his lead, with sudden bursts of daring coming out here and there, but Haley was a quick learner and the flavor of that cherry lip gloss, just like he'd guessed, mixed with the tang of her morning cup of coffee in the most delicious of ways.  
  
He didn't want to stop kissing her.  
  
However, air was quickly becoming an issue, and he didn't want to push the envelope with her too far now that they'd finally gotten somewhere, so, giving himself one last moment to savor her lips, he pulled away just far enough that he could meet her gaze.  
  
Her eyes stayed shut a moment longer, giving Nathan a chance to just look at her. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were curved up in a soft smile, giving off almost the impression that she was caught up in some daydream that she just didn't want to let go of. He wanted to laugh as she let a quiet giggle escape, the giddiness nearly radiating off her in waves, making him giddy as well... er, a manly kind of giddy.  
  
Haley's eyes snapped open at the sound of a girly giggle slipping from her lips; high-pitched and annoying to her own ears. Her cheeks flushed at the sight of him, still so close, his bright blue eyes twinkling at her and his lips stretched into an amused smile.  
  
Oh, God.  
  
Her mind flipped through the events of the morning like a serious of snapshots, trying to catch up with exactly why Nathan was sitting so close to her and looking so damned pleased with himself. There was the math problem, the first kiss, the ass she made out of herself falling out of the chair, second kiss, and now...  
  
Oh, God, again. Nathan, the most popular boy in school, the captain of the basketball team, the hottest guy in their class, had kissed her and then he'd kissed her again, and she'd all but fallen in his lap that second time. And now, he was laughing.  
  
She was so very embarrassed.  
  
The smile wiped from her face and she went into full on avoidance mode as she snapped away from him, pushing her chair back to put some extra distance between them and turning back to the homework at hand. Her whole deny, deny, deny strategy hadn't worked so well the last time, but it was a time tested technique that she was confident would come through for her in the end.  
  
"So, number seven –"  
  
"Oh, no, no, no."  
  
A bit of that man giddiness had slipped away from Nathan at how quickly that dreamy smile had dropped away from Haley's lips, and it just continued to fall from his grasp at the way she jumped back from him like he'd bitten her.  
  
And he hadn't. They hadn't gotten that far.  
  
"There is no avoiding that kiss," Nathan told her firmly as he wrapped his hand around the front leg of her chair and pulled it back toward him. Reaching across her lap to the other side, he twisted her seat until she was facing him head on. Then, trapping her legs between his own so that she couldn't just turn back to that stupid math homework she seemed so intent on finishing, he leaned forward into her space to meet her surprised gaze. "That was a good kiss."  
  
"Nathan! What are you doing?" Haley tried tilting back away from him, but there really wasn't anywhere to go with the chair behind her, him before her, and his arms trapping her in on the sides.  
  
How did she get herself into these messes? She did her homework and she obeyed her parents and she was nice to the elderly. She didn't deserve to be in these messes!  
  
Nathan took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Haley was looking at him like he'd kicked her puppy, when in reality, it was she that was doing her damnedest to make him look like the biggest retard on the planet.  
  
"Okay, Haley," he started. "I understand that you really like number seven and that you feel we should be working on it right now, but it's going to have to wait. We have a bit of an issue on our hands."  
  
Haley crossed her arms over her chest and willed her voice to stay even. "And what issue would that be?"  
  
Nathan just stared for a moment. There it was again. Haley kicking his ego in the nads, only this time, she'd found a pair of those three inch stiletto spike heel things to do it with and he was going to be sounding like an eight year old girl for the rest of the day.  
  
"Okay, here's the thing." He searched for the best way to start this conversation that she so obviously didn't want to have. "I don't really have a lot of experience with rejection... actually, I pretty much have no experience with rejection." He chose to ignore the way she rolled her eyes. "So, I'm a little confused as to this whole avoidance thing you've got going on."  
  
Oh, crap. He was on to her master plan. "I'm not avoiding anything," she scoffed.  
  
"Haley, you liked that kiss."  
  
See, why did he have to keep bringing that up? Especially when he was so close and those perfect lips and that beautiful face were right within her reach. It took all the will power she possessed then to not buckle and give in and admit that yes, she liked the kiss. Of course, she liked the kiss. She loved the kiss. She wanted to marry the kiss and have tons of little kiss babies. But that wasn't the point.  
  
"A little cocky there, aren't we?" She was able to muster up another eye roll.  
  
"Uh, yeah." That eye roll thing of hers was starting to grate on his nerves. "Although, I think it might have something to do with the giggling and the moaning and the you kissing me back."  
  
"Hah!"  
  
Nathan shook his head and slouched back into his chair, taking a moment to just stare at her. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest and her face was hardened down into that scowl that he'd gotten to know so well from their earlier tutoring sessions. It was the one that she used to give him when she'd snap at him for messing with Lucas or yell at him about how she wasn't going to do all his work for him and if he wanted her help, he'd better start shaping up. It was the one that said that she wasn't giving him an inch. Not an inch, not a millimeter.  
  
So, why wasn't he just letting it go?  
  
A part of him, the one that knew that pretty much every girl in school would give anything to trade places with Haley right then, was smarting from her refusal to fall at his feet. His pride was on the line here, and if there was one common string among the Scott men, it's that they were a prideful bunch. He didn't like to lose, not to anyone, not even the girl he had been crushing on big time for the last several weeks.  
  
But as his eyes narrowed and he took in every line of that beautiful face, he noticed the nervous way her teeth were pulling at her bottom lip and the blush that colored her cheeks, flushed across that long, graceful neck, and reddened the tips of her ears.  
  
This wasn't over. She wasn't as hard as she thought she was.  
  
"Okay, Haley." He shifted in his seat, running through strategies in his head. It was time to turn back on the charm. No one, not even Miss Haley James herself, could resist the Scott charm. "I get that you're a little riled up right now. I am, too." He leaned forward again and reached out to grasp her hands. She resisted, trying to keep them firmly crossed over her chest, but after a quick tug of war, she gave in. "That was a good kiss. Hell, it was a great kiss."  
  
Haley could feel her resolve melting away as the soft calluses of his thumbs skimmed over the backs of her hands. He was giving her that smirk, the one that he gave all the cheerleaders and the pretty girls, the one that made sure he was never alone on date night. Normally, that smirk would have her scoffing and calling him a jackass, but then, normally, that smirk wasn't directed at her.  
  
Crappity, crap, crap, crap. There was just something about him that absolutely made her want to swoon. And it was hard to stick to a reasonable battle plan when she was just a puddle of mush on the floor.  
  
"See, so, if we both enjoyed the kiss, if we both wanted the kiss, then I don't see what the problem is." Nathan could see her defenses slowly starting to give way, and it was giving him the coolest rush. That feeling that he got from scoring a winning basket or intercepting a key pass started to pulse through his veins. He was going to win this one, just like he won all the rest. The difference here was that Haley was so much more than a conquest, and watching the ice melt from her eyes was twisting at his stomach.  
  
She was within his reach.  
  
"Because you know, I like you, or at least, I think you know that." He smiled at the way her frown began to fade and her cheeks flushed to an even deeper red. "And since I know that you like me-"  
  
Haley snapped to attention at that. "How do you know I like you? I mean, sure, we're friends and everything, but not every girl is dying just for a chance to be your girlfriend."  
  
Nathan wanted to laugh at her indignation, but he didn't think that would help his cause a whole lot. "Haley, seriously." She cocked an eyebrow at him, obviously not taking that as reason enough, and so he reached across her toward her notebook. Flipping through a few pages, he found what he was looking for and plopped it down on the table beside her.  
  
N H scribbled inside a slightly lopsided heart  
  
Haley didn't think her face could get any hotter. Oh, and the kicks, they just kept on coming.  
  
"There are lots of guys whose name start with N," she scoffed, refusing to make eye contact.  
  
Nathan watched her for a minute. He had her, right were he wanted her, and after weeks of this back and forth between them, it felt so damn good. "Come on, Haley. Admit it. You totally like me."  
  
Haley spared him a glance out of the corner of her eye and she could see that pleased look at his face. Cocky bastard.  
  
But she couldn't help the smile that started to curve the corners of her mouth and the delight that fluttered in her belly. He liked her, too.  
  
"Nathan..."  
  
The air shifted between them again, and the frustration and annoyance that had been weighing them down faded into the lighter, more teasing and flirty mood that made the tutoring center such a safe haven for them both.  
  
Nathan grasped her hands in his again and pulled her forward until their faces were just inches apart and he could look into her eyes. "You know you want to say it, Haley. What could possibly be wrong with just saying it?"  
  
One of those fruity laughs that Haley hated so much pushed past her lips. They were so close again, and she could feel his breath against her cheeks, and see the flecks of green that mixed in with that deep blue in his eyes. She wanted to be cool and coy and throw out something about how his head was already big enough or how a woman never gave away her secrets, but that just wasn't her.  
  
And Nathan liked just her.  
  
The grip on her hands tightened and he tugged her even closer. He was going to kiss her again, and it was all that she could not to let out a crazy fan- girl squeal. This whole kissing thing could not be good for her heart as she was sure it was about to beat right out of her chest.  
  
Haley's eyes began to flutter shut and the last thing she saw before they closed and his lips touched hers was a flash of his blue eyes, so much like another person that meant the world to her.  
  
And that's what was wrong with just saying it.  
  
"Lucas," she whispered against his mouth.  
  
Nathan shot back, dropping her hands as if they'd burned him. That did not just happen. She did not just say that ass's name.  
  
If Haley had been a more scheming type female, he would have thought she had some master plan to take away his masculinity step by step. And saying that name, yeah, that was the kicker.  
  
He focused on her face though, looking for those lines of guilt that would edge Peyton's features every time he called her on the lame crush she had on that dick, but there was none of that on Haley's face. Her eyes only gave away regret.  
  
"Lucas?"  
  
Haley could hear the anger, the hurt, and the confusion that seeped into Nathan's voice. They had been right there, and she'd ripped herself away again.  
  
It was just, earlier in the morning, before Nathan had come in and before he'd opened this Olympic pool-sized can of worms, it had been okay to crush on him. Well, not okay, but not totally wrong because nothing was ever going to come of it. She was never going to make a move and Nathan was never going to make a move, and yeah, she had fantasies about him, but it wasn't a complete betrayal to her best friend forever because she was never going to act on it. No one ever had to know.  
  
But now, God, she'd kissed him and she'd flirted with him and she'd kissed him again. This boy who she liked so much, but had hurt her best friend in ways that he didn't even care about. She'd seen Nathan's eyes, eyes so much Lucas's, and she realized that she was the crappiest friend ever. Lucas would be so hurt.  
  
"Yeah," she pushed out, trying not to meet his upset gaze. "You asked what was wrong with saying it, and... it's just, Lucas is my best friend."  
  
Nathan resisted the urge to pout. Damn, but did he hate Lucas Scott, with his stupid good grades and basketball skills and nice guy personality. He hated him for having the same dad, he hated him for being such a kiss ass to Whitey, and he hated him for taking away Peyton.  
  
But most of all, at that moment, he hated Lucas for getting Haley first.  
  
"Right." He needed to say something, anything to stop her from letting this pass them by. "Well, you know... I've pretty much spent the last month trying to forget that little fact, and I'm sure that if you tried hard enough, you could too."  
  
"Nathan!"  
  
Okay, so that definitely wasn't the right thing to say.  
  
"Right." He reached forward to hold her hands once again, and he found a shimmer of optimism in the fact that she didn't resist. "Look, I know that Lucas doesn't like me very much, but-"  
  
"Well, yeah, and he's got reason to," Haley broke in.  
  
"But..." Nathan pushed on, ignoring her interruption. "But, I've been nicer to him lately. I haven't pulled any pranks and we've been treating him like he's part of the team. That says something, doesn't it?"  
  
Haley wanted to tell him that it did because it said a lot to her, but Lucas wouldn't feel the same way. "The last few weeks don't erase the last few years, Nathan."  
  
"Yeah, but, if Lucas is you're friend and as great as everyone says he is..." Nathan trailed off at the face she made. Hidden shots at the guy probably weren't going to work in his favor just then. "If he's your friend, wouldn't he want you to do what makes you happy? Wouldn't he want you to be with someone that you really like?"  
  
Haley resisted the urge to smile even as her heart was twisting in her chest. Never in a million years would she have ever expected Nathan to be so adamant about this. It was like he was afraid to let the moment and the chance pass. She was afraid of that too. This was like a fairy tale to her, the kind of thing that all girls wished would happen to them, a guy like Nathan caring so much, and wanting him so much in return.  
  
It was frightening, though, too. There was so much that could be lost.  
  
Of course, Lucas wanted her to be happy. He told her all the time how much he thought she deserved that, but with Nathan? She had tried telling him the ways that they had become friends, but he didn't even want to listen to that. There was too much baggage there for Lucas to ever really be okay with him, to be okay with him and her. He would always be worried that Nathan would hurt her.  
  
And she couldn't say that thought didn't worry her as well. Nathan was made to break hearts.  
  
There was a voice in the back of her head, though, that was telling her that it didn't matter. Nathans didn't come along all that often in life. This, whatever it was, was a one-chance shot.  
  
"When you say be with someone...when you say that, what do you mean?"  
  
Nathan weighed her question back and forth in his mind, taking in her hesitation and soft tone. What did he mean?  
  
This had all come upon him so fast. Twenty minutes ago, the thought of something really happening between them hadn't even seemed possible. It wasn't even in reach.  
  
In his head, throughout the past few weeks, the desire to make her permanent in his life had become so strong. In his head, he wanted her to be his. He wanted her for his girlfriend.  
  
But that was only in his mind, late at night, when his parents were fighting in the other room and he wanted something to make sense in his life, or at games when his Dad was yelling at him and Whitey had his head stuck so far up Lucas's ass he was surprised the other boy could play, and he needed someone that believed in him. And sometimes, it was when he was just by himself and he could picture that smile she would give him that always seemed just a little brighter than she gave anyone else.  
  
He liked that idea in his head, but Haley James didn't exactly fit in his world.  
  
If it hadn't been for Lucas and the tutoring, he never would have given her a second glance. She wasn't a cheerleader or a part of student council. She didn't run with the popular crowd. Actually, she spent most of her time with the crowd the popular kids picked on.  
  
Nathan didn't think that things like popularity or parties mattered to Haley, but they mattered to him.  
  
There was still that voice though, the one that insisted that she was too important to let go, that echoed in his skull. This was a one-shot deal, and he was a bigger dumbass than he'd ever realized if he let her slip through his fingers.  
  
"I'm saying..." Nathan hated hearing the nerves in his voice. How could one girl make him so sure and unsure all at the same time? "I'm saying that I want you to be my girlfriend."  
  
Haley's eyebrows shot up. She heard his words and she felt his fingers tighten over hers, and her heart soared. She'd never thought she'd hear that come out his mouth.  
  
Nathan tugged her hands into his lap. "Look, I know that we both have things, you know. You have Lucas, and I have..." He trailed off. "We just both have things... but I kind of think you should give us a chance, you know. Just so we can see."  
  
Haley's attention quirked at his mention of Lucas and whatever it was that he wasn't saying. She was being pulled in two different directions, hurting Lucas or letting Nathan go, and neither of those seemed like good ideas.  
  
"Maybe we could just, I don't know, give it a test shot."  
  
Haley looked at him curiously. "What, like a trial run?"  
  
Nathan rolled the phrase over in his head, and he felt a bit of that earlier apprehension push off his shoulders. A test run. "Yeah, what about we give it like a week? You can deal with Lucas, and I can show you that we're worth this shot."  
  
"A week?" Haley let out a laugh. This is why she didn't play sports. Athletes had their heads banged around and they ended up spouting off crazy crap. "You want us to have a week long relationship?"  
  
"Well, maybe longer." Nathan could see her giving him that what the f uck look, and he didn't like it. A test run was a good idea. He'd had a good idea! "Just give me seven days to prove to you that we could be longer."  
  
Nathan's insistence was doing something to her, and causing her to do something that she knew she shouldn't because she probably wasn't strong enough to resist him and his ocean blue eyes just then. She considered it, mentally adding up the pros and cons of the issue, ticking points on one side next to movie marathons with Lucas and on the other side next to Nathan's perfect hands.  
  
Haley was the safe girl, and she always did things the safe way. She didn't walk alone late at night, she wore her safety belt, and she always waited a solid forty-five minutes after lunch before swimming. And maybe the safe way wasn't always the most exciting way, but it worked for her. It worked in her world.  
  
So, when opportunity presented itself for stepping out of line with the rules and regulations, she didn't normally give it much thought. It wasn't who she was, and she was okay with that. She was perfectly content in her beige little corner with her sweater jackets and Friday nights in with the parents.  
  
But this time, oh, there was just something so tempting about his offer, about his confident smirk. It gave her that desire in her belly, the one that Lucas told her about when he joined the team, the desire to color outside the lines and prove that she didn't always do the easy thing, the reliable thing.  
  
Lucas, God, she loved him, but watching Mall Rats for the umpteenth time was the safe way, and Nathan's hands, well, she was pretty sure they could crush her heart.  
  
But she wanted to risk it; she wanted to try it.  
  
The bell sounded behind them, signaling the end of the period, but neither moved, waiting to hear what her answer would be.  
  
"Okay."  
  
Nathan was surprised. He thought that she would dig her heels in a little bit more. See, this is what he meant by not even her being able to resist that Scott charm. "Alright then. One week. Next Tuesday morning, you'll decide."  
  
Haley nodded and took a deep breath. Telling Lucas was not going to be pleasant, but this felt right.  
  
Not wanting her to dwell too much on the new decision and determined to make the most of the boyfriend benefits he would have for the next week, Nathan pulled her forward again, catching her lips in a quick kiss.  
  
He let her go then, standing up and gathering his notebook and homework into his bag, and he could feel her stand beside him to do the same. Looking down at her, he couldn't stop a grin from stretching his lips. Haley was his girlfriend.  
  
"So..." She looked up at him expectantly, a grin tugging at her lips as well.  
  
"I guess I'll see you in history," Nathan said, backing away toward the door.  
  
"Right. Okay." Haley followed him, still not quiet able to process just what all the last hour had changed, and it certainly didn't help when he bent down to pop another quick kiss on her mouth.  
  
"To the next seven days," he told her. "And seven nights." He winked then, and pushed open the door, disappearing into the crowd.  
  
Crap. It was going to be a long week.  
  
-----------------------  
  
_Remember, feedback is for winners!_


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